Hey MM, long time no see.
Regarding 'fairness', as a sort of a libertarian/objectivist, I definitely would like the world to be fair. I have been around long enough to realize that what is fair to one is not to another. It does not take a sociology study to prove that. I love the incident early in Atlas Shrugged when James Taggert tells Dangy that her clever, efficient and correct action to solve a problem was not 'fair'. It was clear even that early in the story that what he meant by fair was continuing to support an incompetent crony. To me, Dagny's action was fair.
There is some good points in your essay tho' like you, I am very cautious about sociology studies.
The market mechanism is an ingenious way out of trying to get people to agree.

"Anthropologists from UCLA and other schools set out to apply Game Theory exercises in fifteen so-called “primitive” (small-scale) societies. ... Nothing typifies the non-industrialized peoples of the world. Some are overly generous by our standards; others stingy. Some hunters follow meticulous rules of status for sharing, others hide their kills until after dark and sneak them in. Market societies depend on fairness. Trademarks build reputations. We Americans, in particular, and Westerners in general, are socialized to internalize norms of reciprocity and fairness that are unusual among other peoples."